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Cryptonomicon

An American computer hacker operating in Southeast Asia attempts to break a World War II cypher to find the location of a missing shipment of gold. The gold was stolen by the Japanese during the war. By the author of The Diamond Age.

Abstract:

An American computer hacker operating in Southeast Asia attempts to break a World War II cypher to find the location of a missing shipment of gold. The gold was stolen by the Japanese during the war. By the author of The Diamond Age.

Testosterone for the inner geek

This is a large, full-bodied book that will most likely appeal to young men who want a cross between an O'Reilly computer manual and an action movie. All the major characters are men, and the women feature into the plot mostly for sexual tension or as problems...Read more...

This is a large, full-bodied book that will most likely appeal to young men who want a cross between an O'Reilly computer manual and an action movie. All the major characters are men, and the women feature into the plot mostly for sexual tension or as problems that the men run from. The plot devices deal with cryptography, Internet programming, war and industrial espionage.It is a well-written kiss-kiss-bang-bang.

The two threads of the plot are the adventures a man who is a code cracker and special operations agent in World War II and the adventures of his son as an Internet entrepreneur in the 1990's.The son, working for a company setting up an off-shore operation near the Philippines, is unaware of his father's past. In the process of laying undersea communications cables, a cache of lost gold from World War II is found in a container with a reference to his father. The narrative cuts between the father's adventures and those of the son.

There is an interesting play on Unix root and the character Enoch Root. Enoch was a master special operations agent in WWII, and he floats ambiguously between the concepts of truth and deception, between good and evil. He connects the father to the son. Biblically, Enoch was in the seventh generation from Adam. In the story he is seems to control action from behind. In the Unix operating system, the root directory is the deepest level of the system.

The outlook will not be likely to cause one to reexamine ones worldview or get in touch with ones sensitive side; however, compared to its real competition--the action movie--it is decidedly higher brow.

Fascinating, fun and fast-paced

Neal Stephenson's best, so far, in my opinion. While "Snow Crash" is undeniably important from a "let's talk about the metaverse and cyberstuff" perspective, I believe "Cryptonomicon" is simply a better novel. The parallels between WWII cryptography and the disguising of data related to war efforts...Read more...

Neal Stephenson's best, so far, in my opinion. While "Snow Crash" is undeniably important from a "let's talk about the metaverse and cyberstuff" perspective, I believe "Cryptonomicon" is simply a better novel. The parallels between WWII cryptography and the disguising of data related to war efforts and modern (ie, late 20th century) cryptography are fascinating. And the personal, family history elements are woven in with smooth ease.This is a great tale, told very well, and with a good chunk o' learning thrown in.Read this.

"An American computer hacker operating in Southeast Asia attempts to break a World War II cypher to find the location of a missing shipment of gold. The gold was stolen by the Japanese during the war. By the author of The Diamond Age."@en